Community Living

The kitchen had been buzzing all day. Two mismatching tables were placed together and twelve mismatched chairs squeezed into a dining room of a beach house in New Zealand. Our table was filled to the brim with carb-loaded favorite foods like stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, pierogies (it was an international celebration!), green bean casserole (with homemade…

I always loved Christmas. The lights, the music, the decorations and the gifts were always the culmination of the year—the big countdown—the point on the calendar where every other day found its place. So, it’s no wonder my first Christmas in missions felt off. I was on outreach in the tropics. It was sunny, hot…

There’s construction happening right outside our front door. The lot that we live on was subdivided, and now a house is being built on what was our front patio. I’ve had some ups and downs with that reality, as most people would. Almost every day I’ve been sitting at the kitchen table, drinking my morning…

“Just go over to the house sometime, they’d love to meet you!” Fresh to Tauranga, New Zealand, friends had raved about the YWAM Furnace community. My new university was right next door to where their current Discipleship Training School was running, and I wanted to meet them. I’d heard about DTS all my life and…

It was a Monday morning, and the new house work duty list was up. Lunch dishes. Again—for the sixth week in a row. As a chronic complainer, I continued to wash the dishes because I had to—but trust me, I didn’t want to, nor did I find it fun. But, it wasn’t just the dishes.…

On Friday afternoon we were headed to community outreach. As I jumped into the van, I hit the the rim of the door—and gave myself a concussion. I regained consciousness quickly, but my brain was still a bit fuzzy. So I had to take it easy for a few days. On Mondays we have Community…

My steering wheel suddenly felt like I was maneuvering a two-ton weight. Turns out steering fluid can look like it’s in there—but it’s not. In my Ford Focus’ case, old fluid stained the container at “full”, while slowly leaking out. Late one night that leak burst, splattering fluid across my friend’s driveway. I…